The Burned-Over District is a term used by some to describe the region of Western New York in the historical period of 1800-1850. It is also sometimes called the Second Great Awakening with a combination of religious, social and political elements.

No single policy was as injurious to Middle Eastern Christians as the invasion of Iraq. In this repressive but secular dictatorship, Christians were free to worship and work. The ruling Baath Party was formed by a Christian; under Saddam Hussein a nominal Christian, Tariq Aziz, was foreign minister and deputy prime minister. However, U.S. intervention triggered a sectarian conflict which drove out hundreds of thousands of Christians (many to Syria), spawned a new al-Qaeda organization which morphed into the Islamic State (now killing Christians in Iraq and Syria), and tolerated ruthless Shia rule which encouraged Baathists and Sunni tribes to support ISIL (enabling its unexpected victories). Absent George W. Bush’s Iraq folly, backed by Rubio and most of his competitors, the “murderous terrorist organization,” as Rubio termed the Islamic State, wouldn’t even exist.

To be fair, the willfully ignorant Dubya was likely clueless, unlike the neocon cabal pulling the strings.